For Carson’s 10th birthday yesterday, we went to the Cubs/Giants game in SF.  My wife’s b-day gift to him was a meet ‘n greet with the Cubs player while being served lunch.  I made 3 rounds through the buffet, thank you very much .  Sean Marshall turned out to be the player that we got to meet and hang out with.  He did a great job during the Q & A with all the Cubs fans… the majority flew in from Chicago for the event.  We also received a tour of AT&T Park.  The tour guide was excellent and he gave us many interesting tidbits about how AT&T came to be, as well as some great stories about this beautiful ballpark.  If you’ve never been, I highly suggest you make the trip at some point in your life.  The only field I like more, is Wrigley.  Although I still haven’t been to Fenway as that stadium may bump AT&T to 3rd on my list. 

I obviously love going to watch the Cubs when they come into town.  But I wanted to punch every Giants fan in the face last night.  Every time the Cubs scored a run, us Cubs fans would get up and cheer, like any fan would do for their team.  And Cubs fans (like Red Sox and Yankees fans) travel really well.  We were all over the stadium last night dressed in our Blue.  But whenever we got up to support our Cubbies, the Giants fans would yell at us; “SIT DOWN CUBS FANS!  YOU HAVEN’T WON IN 102 YEARS.  102 YEARS, 102 YEARS, 102 YEARS!”  Again, I wanted to punch them in the face, but damn it, they were right.  So all I could do was cry a little bit inside (I couldn’t show it on the outside of course) and act like they weren’t bothering me.  It was torcher.  But I guess sometimes I like a little torcher.  I’ve been on a little torcher kick this week.  My new training program has Anderson Squats in it…

 Those feel like torcher while doing them.  My new program also has Trap Bar Deadlifts.  I start off working up to a max double, followed by 2 higher rep sets…

Deadlifts can feel like tourcher.  Especially when you do the higher rep sets.

I also went to the dentist and as it turned out, they had to numb my mouth.  It took much longer for my mouth to regain any feeling than I had anticipated.  I couldn’t eat or drink anything (including a protein shake) ’til after 2 p.m. and I hadn’t eaten since 8 a.m.  Yes, that was tourcher for me.  But much more so for the people around me.  If I don’t get food in me every couple hours, I start to resemble a tired, cranky 4-year old girl.  No wonder my wife rushed out of the house when I got home after my dentist appointment.  Good call Shondra, I don’t blame you!

With all that said, nothing torchered me more than typing the below numbers…

1908 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.

Now that was torcherous.  And it took waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long to type!

I colored some noteable years;

-1915 – this is the year my Grandpa was born.  2006 was the year this great man died.  He NEVER got to see the Cubs win a World Series ring.  Are you kidding me?  That’s really messed up!!!

-1945 – this is the last time the Cubs played in the World Series.

1976 – this is the year I was born.  I’ve lived 34 years without seeing a championship from the Cubs.  This pales in comparison to my Grandpa’s experience, but it’s still too damn long!

But here’s what I am thinking;  Something has to reverse the billy goat curse.  We need 10 (or more) people to type into their computer, every year from 1908-2010 as I did above.  It may or may not help to color-code a few personal meaninful years – I’m not sure about that part yet.  There has been just over 10 decades (hence the reason we NEED at least 10 people to follow through with this de-cursing) since we last won that ring.  We do this, and we WILL be getting that World Series Ring really soon here.  C’mon Cubbies fans, step up and help out.  We can do it!

I can’t wait ’til next year!!! …